Challenges

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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

That’s sort of a hard question for me. Since I learned to
read, I’ve devoured books, magazines, instruction manuals, anything readable,
but the idea of actually writing a book didn’t come into my head until maybe
high school, maybe college. I wrote a couple of short stories in high school,
but expected to become an electrical engineer with a side hobby playing music.
As the engineering and math classes in college grew more and more dull, I
started to pick up literature and writing classes for fun. But then I got the
advice that one should live a little before one tried to become a writer, so I
spent two decades working for newspapers. In 2001, I heard about National Novel Writing Month, and I thought
why not? I didn’t win that year, nor in 2002, but coming close that second time
gave me the impetus to keep writing, not just wait till November 2003. And when
I won NaNo (reached 50,000 words) in 2003, I knew I wanted to try to finish
something that would sell, something that strangers would want to read.

What was your inspiration for The Untitled Lady?

There are a lot of inspirations. I wanted to show how strong
women were in the Regency—they ran households and also businesses, and marched
in protests, and so much more. When I read about the mass protest in Manchester
later called Peterloo, I was amazed at how many women participated—and how many
people altogether (estimated at 60-75 thousand!).

What is your favorite thing about the Regency period?

I love how it is right at the cusp of change. The industrial
revolution is at the door, while lords and ladies with beautiful manners and
strict codes of behavior swirl around each other in ballrooms.

If you could have dinner with one person from this period in
time, who would it be and why?

Georgiana
Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. I’d ask her about the literary salons she
ran, and the political campaigns she participated in, even though women could
not vote. I’m also curious about a novel she is said to have written, and a
piece of music that was played at the theater.

How much research goes into writing your novels?

Tons. I like to write regencies that are a little off the
beaten track, so there is a lot that isn’t covered in the standard texts or
other historical novels, from towns like Manchester to vocations like weaving
and spinning. Most important to me is getting the thinking right; for example,
how highborn or lowborn people in that time would have seen a woman who did not
know who her father was. This year I attended a costume symposium and touched
real clothes from the 1800s, hoping to do better at recreating those in text.

What was the most interesting thing you learned while
writing The Untitled Lady?

Peterloo was arguably the first large-scale march in Europe
that attempted a form of “nonviolent protest,” something I associated with
Gandhi in India and civil-rights marches in the US. Turns out Gandhi had read Percy
Shelley’s poem about Peterloo and talked with friends about Shelley’s call
for peaceful protest.

What's next for you?

A story set in Spain in 1808, with British printers and
soldiers, Spanish countesses, and more. Needs research, so I’m heading to the
Galician region this spring.

Shocking family news forces Madeline Wetherby to abandon her plans to marry an earl and settle for upstart Manchester merchant Nash Quinn. When she discovers that her birth father is one of the weavers her husband is putting out of work—and a radical leader—Maddie must decide which family she truly desires, the man of her heart or the people of her blood.

An earl’s second son, Nash chose a life of Trade over Society. When protest marches spread across Lancashire, the pressure on him grows. If he can’t make both workers and manufacturers see reason he stands to lose everything: his business, his town, and his marriage.

As Manchester simmers under the summer sun, the choices grow more stark for Maddie and Nash: Family or justice. Love or money. Life or death.